FairyTales
by SassyAngel
Summary: Slight RufusTifa. She's not all she seems to be. He's not yet a prince.


Disclaimer: I do not own FF7, duh.

**Fairytale**

"Now listen here boy: you be on your best behavior and don't say anything unless I tell you to, is that clear?" A meaty hand grabbed Rufus Shinra's shoulder too tightly to be called affectionate. In fact, the man's tone sounded more threatening and condescending than anything, almost as if he was talking to a stray dog instead of his own son.

"Yes sir." Even though he hated his father, an emotion he still couldn't name but he knew as the ugly black thorns that pierced his very being every time he was subjected into close quarters with this man, he was forced to obey. It was either him or his mother that his father abused, and though his mother showed him less affection than his father, she was too weak to fight against her husband. He felt he was indebted to her, and this was the only reason he being so courteous to his father.

"Don't give me lip, boy. This customer is especially important. If you do anything like what happened last time, so help me, I'll send you as far away from the posh life in Midgar as I can." It was a real threat, an ugly nastiness that didn't phase the boy so much as made him glance up coolly at his father, an intelligence that both made his father proud and furious. Already, his son felt he was better than everyone else. He might have been proud if he hadn't extended this very attitude to his own father. Ungrateful little…

"Sir, we'll be arriving in five minutes." Their chauffer, a Turk, told them both tersely. One day, when he was old enough, he swore that he would use the department his father had created to protect himself and his family to kill him. What a delightful irony…

"I understand, father," the tone was clipped, but not totally impolite, "but why do we need to build a Mako Reactor here? It's a dump." He didn't flinch when his father turned around to glare distastefully at him, bulk shifting and ready to pounce like a bear. A very overweight bear, but one that could be potentially dangerous nonetheless.

"Don't use that tone of voice with me." His father growled dangerously, and he might have been frightened had he not heard this all since birth. Instead, he settled on rolling his eyes and flicking his hair out of his eyes. "This place is going to boom, you understand? This is an investment. But I don't expect a stupid little brat like yourself to comprehend." But he did understand, and he was exceptionally smart for a 'little brat'. Already, he was in courses that were well into high school, and he already knew how to defend himself. That was more than what he expected from his father, who only had a bit of charm, less education than a high school graduate, but thankfully enough money and luck to get him to where he was today.

He also knew that this town, Nibelhiem, would not be a wise investment. No one wanted to move to mountains that housed ravenous wolves. His father was blind, overeager, and stuffed to the brim with money he couldn't spend fast enough. The whole situation sickened him. If he was president… Well, he wouldn't have to wait long. The way the old has been clogged his arteries full of fat, he'd be dead in no time.

So, armed with this knowledge, he kept quiet, the present he was supposed to give to the daughter of the mayor sitting uncomfortably on his lap. His father had dragged him to a shopping mall, ordering him to 'pick out a gift for the spoiled princess'. It was supposed to be a sign of their good faith and hope to do business well with each other, but his father couldn't care less what it was so long as the price tag was expensive. Rufus hadn't known what girls his age liked, so had been just as clueless as his father. The only girl he knew was Scarlet, a little whiny blonde haired girl who only wanted to put on dresses far too large for her, put on excessive make up or perfume, and pretend that she was getting married or whatnot. When he'd suggested they have a war or a corporate take over, she'd cried. Girls were stupid, and that's all there was to it.

The thought of buying a dress, makeup, or ring however, was out of the question since Rufus Shinra would not buy trinkets that were middle class at best. But since those were his only real clue into the female mind, and since he had so readily discarded the notion, he decided that he'd do what he'd always done. Bought whatever he pleased.

Expensive stores were no big deal to him. He'd had whatever he wanted as soon as he was proven by a blood test to be related to that despicable man he could only call father with the utmost contempt. All he knew about the girl was that she was his age, the mayor's daughter, and what she looked like since she had been featured in a newspaper, hugging her father around the waist and smiling. He didn't know why his father made such a big deal about Rufus impressing such an obvious dimwit.

It took him days of trying to figure out an acceptable gift as he paced around his room when he stumbled upon a book of fairy tales he remembered his nurse reading to him when he was still a child. It was juvenile, but he found himself sitting on a plush chair, flipping through the lusciously illustrated tome, with looping, elegant scrawl and a solid cover that glittered like stars. He had been running out of options, and had plopped it in front of his bodyguard, daring him to say something through the narrowed slits of his eyes. When it was properly wrapped, he tucked it under an arm and curtly thanked him.

For some reason, he wondered what the girl would say to receiving a book of fairy tales. He had long since outgrown the stories and often scoffed at the obvious childishness of them, and yet… This book held more for him than just stories of beautiful women and chivalrous princes. It was the memory of someone tucking him in gently, someone smoothing back his hair affectionately, and a smile that was reserved just for him… All childish. He decided if the girl liked it, she was a fool, and if she didn't she was ungrateful.

Rufus feels stupid, standing in a room full of middle aged men squeezed into suits that might have been flattering a decade before, laughing as they lit cigars. The color of wine swirling in crystal glasses captivated him for a while before he grew bored. Everyone his father introduced him to, he'd bow graciously to, thanking them for their business and asking that they continue their generosity in the future. He felt very much the lap dog whenever his father's colleagues crowed out laughter, clearly delighted that he could even speak.

"Quite a boy you have there, Shinra!" Was the hearty agreement among everyone but the man who should have been the proudest of them all. Rufus only wished that he could just drop this present off as soon as possible. After the mandatory greetings and exclamations of gratitude, one had to make small talk. Business was a taboo subject, so most of the conversation he had to endure while at his father's side was about himself. They talked as if he wasn't even in the room, and Rufus hated it. No matter what smart, sarcastic comments he made to them, they only seemed even more amused by him. With each passing second, he wished more and more he had been allowed to bring Dark Nation, just so he could point her in the right direction and get her to tackle and tear apart all who stood in his way.

He was finally beginning to lose his short temper when his father breathed out a slow sigh.

"About time," He heard his father mutter savagely, "who does this country bumpkin think he is, keeping us waiting like this?" Rufus wasn't interested in the mayor, he'd seen enough old men to last him a lifetime, but it was his daughter that he found himself glaring at angrily. She was the reason he was lugging around this heavy tome, and he would give her a piece of his mind. If she could even comprehend it, of course. But as soon as she turned away from her father to glance at him, all thought suddenly flew from his mind. He'd known that she hadn't been as repulsive as Scarlet from her pictures, but for some odd reason he found all his anger stuck in his throat.

She glided up to them, dressed in a black dress that fit and had a smile that looked far more appealing than all the make up that Scarlet had globbed on her face so meticulously. Rufus wasn't sure what had made his stomach hurt, the amount of wine his father had let him have or the fact that she was looking at him with such open curiosity and friendliness that he wanted to puke.

"Ah! Here he is, the man of the hour!" His father boomed pleasantly enough, as if he hadn't just been insulting the man beneath his breath. Rufus couldn't keep his eyes off his daughter. Tifa, that's what her name was. Tifa Lockheart. When he'd heard her name he had about split his sides snickering at such a silly name, yet now all that echoed in his mind was how lovely the name was. She was.

"Arthur Shinra!" Mayor Lockheart boomed right back, except he seemed genuinely pleased to see his father. "You are too kind!" The two began small talk almost instantly, with his father's hand gripping his back tightly in warning. It was behave or he would most likely receive a punishment in private. "Is that your boy? Is this Rufus?" The man asked, brown eyes as he turned to appraise the boy. "How are you son? The old men around here treating you with the respect due, right?" Rufus was used to polite pleasantness, neglect, and harsh threats accompanied with smacks, but he wasn't used to someone so genuinely interested in what he had to say. He would have been caught off guard if he wasn't who he was.

"I couldn't say they were disrespecting me, sir. That would require them to purposefully ignore me. The case only seems to be that they are too ignorant to speak to me." His father was gritting his teeth angrily, though Mayor Lockheart threw his head back and laughed.

"Honesty! The beauty of it never fails to amuse me." The man said, smiling at Rufus, who couldn't help but being pleased. This man instilled in him more pride to be in his presence than his father did by siring him. "Oh, excuse my manners! This is Tifa, my daughter." The girl smiled courteously, giving a respectful bow to both of them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." She gave Rufus a wink when their eyes met, and he wasn't sure whether to excuse himself or wink back. He was usually confident, more so than this, but somehow the very aura she was exuding clouded his mind…

His father cleared his throat loudly, once, twice, before elbowing Rufus as discreetly as possible. Hard. Already off balance, he almost fell over. Almost.

"This is for you." Rufus said, pushing it toward her, ignoring the looks that both adults shot each other, obviously pleased. Tifa accepted graciously, opening the gift eagerly. Remember, he had to remind himself, if she likes it she's childish but if she hates it she's ungrateful.

"Oh wow!" She breathed, fingers tracing the cover delicately, as if she was afraid it would crumple to dust beneath her fingertips. "Thank you!" She gushed, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. While this was perfectly acceptable, Rufus found himself flushing a very strange sort of red. Was he ill? If she was making him sick, so help him…

The adults, pleased that they would be able to get along, turned back to polite small talk. Now that he didn't have the present, Rufus wasn't quite sure what to do. Thankfully, however, Tifa wasn't so awkward.

"C'mon, let's get out of here. This dress is killing me." He was surprised that her voice wasn't as posh and polite as it had been a few seconds earlier. In fact, the look she was shooting him was positively mischievously. While Rufus had snuck out of many of these parties, he'd never done so at the whim of a girl. He must have looked just as arrogant as the rest of the men here, because Tifa cut him off. "Let's at least go outside. I swear if one more guy gives me a funny look, I'm socking him right in the gut." Without skipping a beat, she turned back to her father, tugging gently on his sleeve to get him to bend down a bit. Whispering something that Rufus couldn't hear, her father laughed.

"Sure. Behave yourself, okay?" Then it was back to business, without another thought to the two children. Smiling triumphantly, Tifa lead the way through the mass of bodies, Rufus having no choice but to follow her. He wasn't sure if he should be laughing or sneering down on her. Sock someone in the gut indeed.

He did have to admit though, as soon as they exited the house, he could breathe better. Tifa made her way to sit on a nearby well, which Rufus could only identify because he'd read about such things in books about the time before technology, and he decided that it was much more enjoyable out here. Here he felt… freer. No one was watching his every move, and he wasn't expected to exactly follow etiquette. The thought in itself was… intoxicating.

"I don't know what it is about those parties, but I've always dreaded going to them. And that was only about my third one. You've probably been to tons." When Rufus agreed to this, feeling quite superior because he had attended more of these posh parties, Tifa only made a face. "How can you stand them? They're so boring and all those adults are just so…" She waved her hand, and somehow he knew what she was talking about.

"Phony?" She smiled, and he felt a different kind of superiority because he had managed to make her smile. It was softer, not so condescending.

"Yeah. They all act like friends but they all hate each other." She sighed, glancing down at the book that she was still clutching as if it was a precious jewel. "Thanks again for the book. I know it sounds stupid, but my mom used to read me stories just like this before she got sick." The way she talked about her mother made Rufus feel curious. What was her mother like? The only one he had was a letdown to say the least. The Turks would win the best mother award compared to her. Yet Tifa talked about her mother as if she actually cared about her.

"What's wrong with her?" Tifa was staring down hard at the cover, and shrugged slowly.

"Something about the pollution in the big city. The doctor said we should move out here to make life more bearable for her." Tifa smiled, thought here was something disjointed about it. "You'd like her, I think. She always made the parties fun. We'd make faces behind the old men and see who could eat more sandwiches or make up what those men did when they got home. She was really good at making everything seem hilarious." She paused, the smile fading into a somber look. "What about your mom?"

After hearing about such a mother, Rufus felt as if life had dealt him a bad deal. He couldn't beat her when it came to mothers so…

"I don't have one." It was close enough to the truth, at any rate. Tifa, however, looked more heartbroken than he felt when admitting it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! If I had known I wouldn't have-" He cut her off. This was one of the only conversations he liked well enough to continue, and she wasn't going to ruin it with her apologies.

"Tell me about yours again." Tifa looked at him, a small smile on her face, a genuine one, before launching into a tirade of tales. She told him the kind of stories he'd only read about in fairy tales, of a mother who would put a sprinkler on the lawn and run through it with her, the kind who would kiss away the scrapes and bruises, the kind who would tuck her daughter in at night after reading to her.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be just like her." Tifa said, smiling happily. As she was now, he was sure Tifa would most likely be the woman she had described. If Tifa was to become like her mother, would he become like his father? The thought was repulsive.

"I don't want to be anything like my father." Rufus stated arrogantly, despising everything his father stood for.

"You are like him though. The way you talk, how you look." She stopped when he glared at her. "But I suppose you're different. Your dad seems mean. You're…" She closed her eyes as if searching for the right word. He was about to insert something such as 'smarter' or 'more handsome' or even 'more charismatic', but she snapped her fingers when she opened her eyes. "You're like a prince." When he arched an eyebrow, she grinned, tapping the book excitedly. "You might seem cold, but you have a heart of gold, right?" When he didn't exactly argue, she only smiled.

"Does that make you a princess? Because, if so, don't expect me to slay dragons for you." Gross. Like he'd do anything for a girl. Tifa only smiled, turning away from him.

"Just once… I'd like to be. I don't want to have to be so strong all the time. It gets tiring." As he watched her, he set his mouth into a frown. Perhaps…

"Fairytales don't exist." Tifa laughed, nudging their shoulders slightly.

"One day, when you do meet your princess, you won't think so." If the princess he met was anything like Tifa, he supposed the thought wasn't completely unthinkable.

Author's Notes Sorry this is so long and stupid. I just wanted to write a Rufus/Tifa since this pairing isn't as supported as it should be. I mean, there are more Sephirtoh/Tifa things going on. If people can make that possible, I'm sure anything else is easy. Any sort of review is welcome!


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